Wednesday, April 27, 2005

More on Local File Sharing

In this morning's Post-Gazette, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) defends its suits against college students:
"This is not a victimless crime," said Jonathan Lamy, spokesman for the Washington, D.C., group. "Recording companies have laid off tens of thousand of employees. Half the songwriters in Nashville are no longer in the business of writing songs because they cannot make a living.

"Record stores, particularly around college campuses, are closing," he said.

Tens of thousands of people laid off by recording companies? If that's true, I'd expect to see them marching in the streets. Does the recording industry even employ tens of thousands of people in the first place? Here's an old story that suggests that the recording companies barely employ tens of thousands of people in the first place. By the way, how many new jobs have been created by companies developing new technologies for creating and distributing music online?

Songwriters in Nashville? Are Pitt and CMU students really downloading Montgomery Gentry in huge numbers? Is that the problem? Well, then (Bye, Bye, Birdie reference ahead), what's the matter with kids today? What's wrong with hip hop?

And record stores closing? Can you say "amazon.com"? How about "iTunes"?

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